1764290 - The pref for Firefox default PDF handler does not work as expected after Firefox update while it was manually set as default PDF handler before

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Shell Integration, defect)

Description

[Timea Zsoldos [:zstimi/tzsoldos], Desktop QA]

Attachment: after update 98 to 100.0b4.png

Affected versions

• Firefox 100.0b4
• Firefox 101.0a1

Affected platforms

• Windows 10 x64
• Windows 11 x64

Steps to reproduce

1. Older Firefox is installed (ex. 98.0b8) and is set as the default browser and PDF handler.
2. Launch Firefox and initiate the update.
3. Set browser.shell.setDefaultPDFHandler to true.

Expected result

• Enter the system defaults settings and see that Firefox is still set default to PDF as
  well, the file type description is "Firefox PDF Document" and the new icon is applied.

Actual result

• In system settings Firefox is the default web browser but the file type description and
  the associated icon hasn't changed (see attachment: after update 98 to 100.0b4.png).

Regression range

• Can't search for a regression as Firefox will be updating to the latest version.

Comment 1

[Nick Alexander :nalexander [he/him] (PTO Feb 24-March 3)]

I think that this will require some migration. I hypothesize that the .pdf association remains FirefoxHTML; we'll need to recognize this and change it to FirefoxPDF. I don't think anything will be broken with this setup, it's just not ideal.

Comment 2

[Nick Alexander :nalexander [he/him] (PTO Feb 24-March 3)]

It's my position that this issue is not a blocker for shipping the Firefox PDF changes grouped under this PDF meta ticket. In particular, it's not a blocker for having set-to-default include setting the default PDF handler for new Firefox users, who won't see this issue at all since they have a new Firefox install.

I believe a single-digit percentage of existing Firefox users have Firefox set as their default PDF handler on Windows. This cohort will keep the existing icon and copy (Firefox HTML Document) but witness no change in functionality: double-clicking PDF files will continue to launch Firefox, Telemetry will still be recorded for these launches, etc. This ticket tracks making those users automatically get the new icon and copy (Firefox PDF Document), but doing so entails some risk: it requires changing their default (from FirefoxHTML to FirefoxPDF ProgID), which isn't something we currently do in PostUpdate at this time. Therefore I propose to not rush this for Firefox 100.

Comment 3

[Elle Solomina (she/her)]

Same problem. Please fix this ASAP! I use Sumatra PDF as my PDF reader on Windows and Gmail in the Firefox as my email client. PDF client in Firefox is completely disable by policy. After ANY update of the Firefox I need to set both of this association MANUALLY for all users accounts on every computer in my network! This is very simple and stupid bug in the installer. And this bug doesn't fix by many years!

Don't reset default value if they are already set by user! Respect what user really want to use!

Version 120...